Ouachita Baptist University Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine, 1945-1949 Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine 11-24-1949 November 24, 1949 Arkansas Baptist State Convention Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/arbn_45-49 Part of the Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Mass Communication Commons, and the Organizational Communication Commons VOLUME 48 LITTLE ROCK. ARKANSAS, NOVEMBER 24. 1949 NUMBER 46 ARKANSAS BAPTIST PAGE TWO Acquisition and Investment A Devotion by the Editor By DR. M. E. DoDD "For where your treasure is, ther-e will your heart be also." We have in these words of Jesus, set against Nate : A continuing feature of Dr. Dodd's have married most recently. One couple who got this book on Sunday night had just been the background of all He had to say on the long and fryitful ministry in Shreveport has married Saturday night. I give another book subject, a very d-eep philosophy concerning been in his interest in the couples he has to the couple present who has been married material possessions, and yet it is a philoso­ married. In response to my request this the longest. The last one was thirty-six phy that is woven into the lives of us all. statement has been prepared fo r .the Bap­ years. There is always a good deal of inter­ The acquisition of material possessions rep­ est in who this couple will be. resents the expenditure of one's life. Your tist papers.-Joe W. Burton, Editor, Home I counsel the couples to establish and weekly pay envelope or your monthly salary Life. maintain a family altar. It will unify, ce­ or your annual income is a symbol of that for The marriage ceremony does not end the ment, stabili21e, and save the family as noth­ which you have given yourself and your life pastor's responsibility for that couple. I try ing else can do. One couple told me after­ powers in toil and labor and thought and to continue my ministry to them in the fol­ wards that when they were settled in the purpose. Suppose you consider for a moment pullman drawing room for their honeymoon those dollars which represent your monthly lowing ways: trip, the first thing they did was to get out income and for which you have toiled and on the marriage certificate I write the their Bible, read a scripture and have prayer. spent your energy. They represent some­ Bibl-e reference, Numbers 6:24-26. This is the That couple h~d a happy Christian home, thing for which you have given your ~ry benediction I use in the ceremony. I call their with two fine sons, until the time of the life. They are stained with the perspiration attention to this and ask them, at their first husband's death. of your brow, they are .,energized by the opportunity, to open their Bible and read When the couple settles in. their own home, strength of your muscles, they are p-ersonal­ these verses together. I call and suggest a home dedication service, ized with the spirit of your personality, they When my marriages were few, I used to according to Deuteronomy 6:4-12. In that are intellectualized by your own thoughts, give the couple an autographed copy of some service appropriate scriptures are read, such they are motivated by your purposes, they are good book, of which there ·are many, con­ music as "Blest Be the Tie That Binds " directed by your planning. Your perspiration, taining suggestions on· i:iow to make a suc­ "Bless This House" is sung. After the coup!~. your energy, your thoughts, your purposes cess of marriage; Miller's The Home Beau­ with united hands as at the wedding cere·­ and motives, are distilled into those dollars. tiful was my favorite. Since the number of mony, have pledged themselves to dedicate As you look at that symbol, what do you my marriages has been running much high­ their home: (1) to religious instruction, (2) think of yourself? How big are you? How er, and books also, I have to be content to to religious discipline, (3 ) to religious con­ give a smaner pamphlet or booklet, like the versatqp, (4) ·to religious hospitality, and (5 ) little? How valuable? How worthwhile? one by William Cook Boone, Together. Or, to religious worship, Deuteronomy 6:7, then You doubtless see that your real size is not I have found that giving a year's subscrip­ have the dedicatory prayer, everybody kneel­ always measured by the number of dollars tion to Home Life is most acceptable. ing. Such a service is a bit of heaven on nor your real worth calculated by the size earth. of your pay check, but by what and how When I say goodbye to the newly-weds I much of yourself you have given to that exact of them th-e promise that they will These things will help to keep the home check. write to me on their first wedding anniversary fires burning, to strengthen the ties that and on as many thereafter as possible. Some bind and to make a good go of married life. The expenditure of our material possessions represents the investment of our lives. In­ of these letters are among my most cherished - ----000 possessions. vestments in the Kingdom of God are the When I hear or read of some notable At This Moment of Hist.ory richest you can possibly make. If we can achievement by either or both, of a couple trust God with our eternal destiny we can By Y. HENDERSON whom I married, I write them a letter or call w. surely trust Him with our earthly lives and them on the phone and give them my con­ Dead coals have a way of accumulating on investments. The point that Jesus makes is that if we gratulations with an expression of personal the torch of knowledge. Along the way these r pride that I was with them at the marriage dead coals must be taken off. "My people," do not trust God with our money, or that altar. If some sorrow has come, I write an said Hosea 4:6, "are destroyed for lack of which represents money, we therefore do not appropriate letter. I giv-e special attention to Knowledge." trust him with our souls and bodios. We can­ them on the occasion of the birth of a baby ' Surely. in the domain of the Christian re­ not deposit our souls in the Kingdom of God and especially the first one. I write the baby ligion, at this point in history, there is a and our money elsewhere because' our souls a letter of welcome to this wonderful world supreme need that we have an interpreta­ will inevitably follow our money. of ours and express the hope and prayer that tion of Christianity that will be as acceptable "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon he may en joy Christian training in the home to man's brain as it is to his heart. In man's earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and and grow up to be a good and greatly useful heart, that is within his inner spiritual soul, where thie~s break through and steal: But person. he has little difficulty in accepting the lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, For some years we have conducted an an­ reality, of the Supreme, . Eternal, Spiritual where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, nual "Christian Homes Service" in our church Presence known as God. But ·with the mind and where thieves do not break through nor with all the coupl-es whom I have married he makes research and investigation of all steal: For where your treasure is, there will as honor guests. It is an evening service and the revelations and creative processes of this your heart be also." Matthew 6:19-21. a formal invitation goes to each couple. They Supreme Spiritual Being. And, under this sit in a white-ribboned reserved section. The God, every human soul has the inalienable ARKANSAS BAPTIST sanctuary is decorated as for a wedding­ right to appraise and to classify the results 206 BAPTIST BUU..DING, LITI'LE· BOCK Ott1c1al Publication of the Arkansas Baptlst with candles and everything. The choir of his research and investigations. And the State Convention sings wedding music. It is most interesting Supreme Maker of man could do no less than B. H. DUNCAN EDITOR to watch the way the couples look at each crown every individual soul, without any MRS. JESSIE MYERS- - -------ED. ASST. other when the choir sings, "Believe Me, If distinction, with an unquestioned sover­ Publication Co=ittee: W. H. Hicks, Little Rock. Chairman; 0. C. Harvey, Arkadelphia; Wyley Elllott. All Those Endearing Young Charms." Their eignty in making his response to his Maker. Parts; 0 . L. Bayllss, Hot Sprlngs; R. M. Abell, Jasper; facial expression is a special study if they The progress of mankind has been slowed Leroy Tedford, Arkadelphia. have been married twenty-fiv-e or thirty-five down across t h e centuries, because it has Entered Post Office, Little Rock, Arkansas, as sec­ ond class mall matter. Acceptance tor maUlng at years. overloaded the baggage car relic of Papal special rate of postage provided ln Section 1198. I try to preach an appropriate sermon. Infallibility with all its absurd assumptions. October 1, 1913. Some of the subjects through the years have What about the wonderful spiritual heritage Individual subscription $2.00 per year. Church Bud­ gets 11 cents per month or $1.32 per year per church been : "Dedicating Our Homes," Deuteronomy which the Roman Catholic Church is an­ tamUy; FamUy Groups (10 or more pa1d annually 1n 20:5; "Do's and Don't for Husband and nouncing at the present moment in its dis­ advance) $1.50 per year.